GLEN GILLIS

• Paul Suchan: Danse Exotique des Gros Papillons

“Gillis plays with great enthusiasm and sensitivity. He navigates technical passages with excellent fingers, and he executes a wide range of extended techniques with amazing ease and skill.”

Hanudel, American Record Guide [May/June 2015]

"The sound is also the big attraction in an MSR Classics release featuring saxophonist Glen Gillis... [it is] a feast for the ears of saxophone lovers.”

Mark J. Estren, InfoDad [December 2014]

SAX SPECTRUM 2, a sequel to Sax Spectrum (2009), is a collection of new music for saxophone in diverse styles. All compositions were written for, written by, or commissioned by Glen Gillis to further promote the saxophone and Canadian composers.

Professor of Music Glen Gillis teaches saxophone, conducting and music education, and also conducts the concert band and saxophone ensembles at the University of Saskatchewan in Canada. Dr. Gillis is a Conn-Selmer Artist and Clinician, and maintains an active performing schedule. He has performed at numerous international music conferences, including the World Saxophone
Congress and North American Saxophone Alliance Conferences, and has appeared as a guest soloist with orchestras and wind ensembles in Canada. In 2012, Gillis and Bonnie Nicholson toured China, performing in venues in Beijing, Tianjin, Xi’an Kunming and Shanghai. In 2013, he hosted the Western Canadian Region IX North American Saxophone Alliance Conference. As a member of the Society of Composers, Authors, and Music Publishers of Canada (SOCAN), his diverse performing career and overall musical experience has spanned more than three decades in the classical and jazz idioms, with many published works for saxophone and band. Gillis has commissioned numerous works for classical saxophone and has collaborated with numerous musicians, conductors and composers. Many of his saxophone students have gone on to receive local and national awards. Also a presenter of clinics at high schools and colleges, he has served as an artist-in-residence at the Banff Centre on six occasions. As an educator and scholar, he has authored articles on the subjects of saxophone, conducting and music education, and is a contributor to The Encyclopedia of Music in Canada, Teaching Music through Performance in Band and Teaching Music through Performance in Band - Middle School Edition. Gillis has presented research papers and clinics at several international music conferences, including the Midwest Band and Orchestra Clinic, World Association of Symphonic Bands and Ensembles Conference, Regional and National College Band Directors National Conferences, Texas Music Educators Association Convention, Hawaii International Conference on Arts and Humanities, NASA Biennial Conference, and the University of Saskatchewan Fine Arts Research Lecture Series. Gillis is highly active as a clinician and adjudicator for solo and ensemble festivals and workshops, as well as a guest conductor of Provincial  Honor Bands, Saskatoon Youth Orchestra and Saskatoon Symphony Orchestra. As director of the University of Saskatchewan Wind Orchestra from 2001-2010, he oversaw the ensemble’s release of three commercial CDs (2005, 2007 and 2009). In 2004, Gillis created the Band Directors Professional Development and the High School Select Wind Orchestra, and in 2005 founded the North Saskatchewan Wind Symphony, an ensemble comprised of some of the finest wind and percussion players from Saskatoon and the surrounding area. As a recording artist, he released SaxSpectrum (MSR Classics MS1328, 2009), and can be heard on Devotion (Ice Music Press, 2014) and didgeridoo.diversions (Hoot/Wisdom Recordings, 2007). [ www.glengillis.com ].

INSTRUMENTARIUM
Alto and Soprano Saxophones: Selmer Series III
Piano: C.B. Bechstein D280, 9’ Concert Grand
Trumpet: Yamaha
E-flat Didgeridoo: Designed by James Cunningham
  Glen Gillis (b.1956)
FANTASIA (2014)

Barbara York (b.1949)
SONATA “MAKING CHANGES” (2014)
Trepidation/Self-Talk
Nostalgia
Spring/New Growth

Richard Gillis (b.1955)
SHADES (2014)
BLUES & REMEMBRANCE (2009)

Glen Gillis
AURORA AUSTRALIS (2014)

Paul Suchan (b.1983)
DANSE EXOTIQUE DES GROS PAPILLONS (2014)

Glen Gillis
CELTIC AIR (2014)
DOPPLER WAH WAH AIR-JIG (2014)

David Kaplan (b.1923)
NARRATIVE (2012)
Soliloquy
Scherzo

Glen Gillis & James Cunningham (b.1954)
CANIS LUPUS (2014)

He Zhanhao (b.1933) & Chen Gang (b.1935)
Arranged by Glen Gillis & Bonnie Nicholson
THE BUTTERFLY LOVERS VIOLIN CONCERTO (2012)

Glen Gillis & Wayne Giesbrecht (b.1964)
SPECTRUM MASHUP (2014)
 



MSR Classics